Your Nutella is safe with me

Classic food pairings like apple and cinnamon, peanut butter and jelly, or tomato and basil work together for many reasons. Complex chemical compounds play off each other and cultural factors can also play a role in how we perceive certain combinations of flavors. For most people these couplings seem natural and elevate the separate components to exceed what each offer individually. However, there is always someone who does not agree with a particular combination. That is me when it comes to chocolate and hazelnut.

I adore all things chocolate, and I enjoy the flavor of hazelnuts. I will happily snack on either one, but when you put them together, count me out. If you give me a jar of Nutella for safekeeping, you will find it untouched when you return to retrieve it. It isn’t just that creamy spread that puts me off – I have tried other foods that pair these flavors and have always been let down. Give me a Linzer cookie with hazelnuts and raspberry jam or pair chocolate with just about any other nut and I will be delighted. Offer me a Ferrero-Rocher and I will pass. The combination just does not work for me.

While I am probably not alone in this opinion, it is not the mainstream consensus. Classics become such because they are popular with the masses. Perhaps this comes down to a particular biological issue as with soap-tasting cilantro haters. It could be because I did not experience this particular combination until later in life and never developed an affinity for it. There are weird combos that I have dragged with me from childhood like peanut butter and pickles, and I am not certain I would enjoy that pairing if I had not first tried it when I was young and impressionable. Whatever the reason for it, my dislike for hazelnut and chocolate together is not likely to change. Do any of you have classic combos that you find strange or off-putting?